At some point in our lives, we have all struggled to lose a few extra pounds; we recognize how hard it is to establish a healthy lifestyle and stick with it. So when we hear a story about someone who has overcome so much more than the norm, we can’t help but feel truly humbled and inspired!

Amber Rachdi of Troutdale, Oregon, is currently inspiring people all over the world with her dramatic weight loss and determination to get healthy after hitting a jaw-dropping 657 pounds when she was just 23 years old.

When Amber filmed the TLC show My 600 Pound Life in 2014, her weight was keeping her from experiencing almost everything that life has to offer. She was unable to drive (in fact she could barely even fit inside a car), she couldn’t bathe herself, and she rarely even left the house except to shop for food.

She relied on a motorized scooter to get around, and she’d resorted to moving back in with her parents because she simply couldn’t function on her own.

As Amber filmed the TLC show, she realized that what she was doing was not living, it was just surviving. She decided to do what she could to lose weight starting right then and there.

The first step in Amber’s weight loss journey was enlisting the help of Dr. Younan Nowzardian. Amber’s family even moved to Houston, Texas, in order to be closer to the doctor as she fought to regain her health.

Photo: TLC

She began by reducing her calorie intake and increasing her physical activity each day in order to lose about 20 pounds to qualify for gastric bypass surgery. The surgery itself was very risky due to her excessive weight, but Amber knew that she would die of obesity if she didn’t work hard to get back to a healthy size.

Photo: TLC

As for gastric bypass surgery, Amber stresses on her Facebook page that it’s not a simple or permanent solution. Rather, it’s a tool to get people started when they’re so overweight that losing weight seems like an insurmountable task.

“I think mostly what it [gastric bypass] does is buy an overweight person time to learn new habits, get into therapy, and learn to make better choices on their own,” Amber said. “Tons of folks need revision if they don’t focus their energy on learning new skills while the surgery is super restrictive.”